Cleveland Indians

While he was still a member of the Cleveland Indians, Sabathia particularly struggled in the 2007 ALCS versus the Boston Red Sox.  In two starts in the series, Sabathia was rocked by the Sox and he went 0-2 with an unseemly ERA of 10.45. 

Continue reading "CC Sabathia's The Greatest Free-Agent ..."

At the beginning of the season, a lot of people sounded off and criticized the Yankees about committing $400 million + C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira. All three may have had shaky Aprils, but May was a complete turnaround for them. Sabathia has been pitching real good his past couple of starts. He was pretty much lights out against the Indians the other day. Pitching into trouble, getting out of it, and getting the win. Teixeira has been torrid every since Alex Rodriguez was put back in the line up. He's been getting his pitches and been hitting them out of the park. Yesterday was no different in the Yankee's loss to the Indians. A.J. Burnett has been pitching well. This past week he got his first win since mid-April. All along, it wasn't that he was pitching poorly. It was just that the bullpen wasn't holding leads for him and he would end up with no-decisions. All is well in Yankeeland. We are a 1/2 game into first place.

Continue reading "Offseason expenditures paying off ..."

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"

A few relatively minor items to cover with the moves made by a few teams recently. What might they mean in the second half? I’ll try and puzzle this out.

Tony Clark, who experienced a career resurgence the day he put on an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform back in 2005, hs returned to the cozy confines of Chase Field. Petco, where hitting a homer is as hard as hitting the lottery, wasn’t as kind to the aging Clark as Chase has been, so he’ll certainly improve on his 2008 line of .239/.374/.307. His 32:19 K:BB ratio, as well as hs 165-point difference between BA and OBP, will tell you his batting eye is fine, and some power should follow.

Continue reading "Roster Tinkering: What's it Mean?"

One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

Continue reading "Second Half Predictions"

Still playing ketchup here, trying to make up for a four-day absence from the blog, so I want to start with the big trade of last week, the CC Sabathia swap. The usefulness of this deal to the Brewers is a little dubious, as CC is likely to be a half-season rental, but let’s break it down:

Continue reading "NL Central Trade Analysis, Part One"

"It's not a game, it's an arms race" - Kanye West and Fallout Boy belt this hook over and over again on a recent hit with that same title. In that context, Kanye and the Fallout Boy guys are referring to the battle of musical artists not only surviving in a competitive worldwide market, but one with hindrances around every music sharing online ripping program. While that's an issue for another day and another blogsite, it's relevance is crucial when talking about the current state of Major League baseball and the National Basketball Association.

Continue reading "From the NBA to MLB, the Arms Race Has Begun"

C.C Sabathia is officially the newest member of the Brew Crew! The Milwaukee Brewers have decided to put there foot down and compete immediately. With the addition of Sabathia the Brewers now have a formidable rotation led buy the lethal one-two punch of Sheets/Sabathia. But, just like a beautiful SL 500 from Hertz- don't get too attached...it's just a rental.

Continue reading "Rent-A-Club is Here!"

Since the calendar has turned to July, the MLB Trade deadline is quickly approaching. What teams will be buyers? What teams will be sellers? What big stars are on the block? Who will stay? Who will go?  Those burning questions are running through minds of fans of all teams, including our beloved Chicago Cubs.

Continue reading "Cubs Crave Sabathia"

OK, that title was irresistible, but in fact I'm going to say that Chien-Ming Wang's foot injury should force the Yanks hand in a trade, especially when combined with other injuries this season. Funny how little things can combine to lead to something even larger, accumulating momentum gradually until it becomes irresistible, as it has with the murmurs about a trade for C.C. Sabathia, which is really more the point of this blog.

Continue reading "Off On the Wang Foot"

Though they don't seem as devastating as the Soriano/Pujols loss I wrote about yesterday, two key players have gone down on two other teams today. Cleveland put Victor Martinez on the DL, while Seattle placed its once-reliable closer JJ Putz back on the DL, both with elbow injuries. And unlike Soriano's freak fracture, there were hints at undiagnosed problems with both Martinez and Putz.

Continue reading "Two Big Injuries, Day Two"

Major League, one of the funniest baseball movies around, told the tale of the woeful Cleveland franchise, so mired in mediocrity that their owner sought to cash in on them finishing in the cellar. It seemed like a good bet. The hapless Cleveland franchise hadn't tasted the postseason since 1954, and hadn't won a world title since 1948, one of the longest pennantless streaks in baseball. But ever since that 1989 movie--wherein, of course, the built-to-fail Indians defied their owner's devious plans--their consistent failure hasn't been a good bet. 

Continue reading "Those Amazing Indians"

Much exuberant ink has been spilled over Asdrubal Cabrera's unassisted triple play in yesterday's Indians-Blue Jays game, only the fourteenth in MLB history. That rarity makes it memorable, but I'm not sure there's a ton of athleticism involved--the Unassisted Triple Play (or UTP for short) is more luck of circumstance than anything.

Continue reading "The Not-So-Unassisted Triple Play"

Two weeks into the 2008 season and the Boston Red Sox must be pleased with how the season has gone thus far. Granted they are only two games over .500 at 8 and 6 and have split their last 10 games, but things could be much, much worse. When the Yankees went to Japan to open the season, they proceeded to go 11-19 in the first month of the season before finally snapping out of it and going on to win the division. Boston is only half a game out of first place in the tightly packed American League East which is currently lead by the surprising Baltimore Orioles who do not figure to hang around much longer.

Continue reading "Red Sox Should Feel Good About The Season So Far"

Cleveland Indians

Can Fausto Carmona sustain his success from last season?

Cleveland came within one game of a trip to the World Series last season before Boston’s comeback from a 3-1 hole. The Indians made no major changes to last year’s squad and figure again to battle for the top spot in the Central. Pitching will play a key role, especially going head to head with Detroit who will boast the top lineup in the Majors.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: AL Central"

The AL Central is my favorite race in the league this year.  The Tigers and Indians are both stacked this season and I think it will very close all year.  I don’t expect either of these teams to have anymore than a 4 or 5 game lead.  The rest of this division is pretty weak which will help these two powerhouses build up the wins.  Let’s get to the breakdowns.

Continue reading "Part V: AL Central"

Continue reading "American League East is a Beast of a Division"